Unemployment rate remains stable in September

Iowa’s unemployment rate in September was stable, and analysts at the Iowa Workforce Development agency say it may be a sign of a turn-around in the state’s economy.State labor market analyst Ann Wagner says “we may be reaching a key turning point here in Iowa’s economy.” She says non-farm employment levels in Iowa appear to be getting back on track. Nearly six-thousand new non-farm jobs were added in Iowa during the month of September. Wagner says there appears to be “healing” in the manufacturing industry, which was hit hardest by the recession that began in 2001. The state’s overall unemployment rate in September was four-point-six percent, identical to the jobless rate for August. Wagner says the current rate translates into about 74-thousand unemployed Iowans. Wagner says there are still pockets of Iowa where unemployment is high. Wagner says the southeast corner of the state is having the most trouble because of layoffs in manufacturing and plant closings. The state estimates there are over one-point-six million workers in the Iowa labor force.